A Night On the Town.

Amelia listens with one ear to the tales of other rabbits

Tuesday night or rather Wednesday morning I didn't get to bed until 2:45 a.m., as a person who attempts to lead a very moderate lifestyle this was completely out of character. It must have been an emergency or something very important, some sort of life or death matter to keep me up so late. In fact such was the case. Tuesday night Rabbit Haven volunteers were out capturing rabbits from the Moreland Park site in San Jose CA, and I was one of 14. Rabbit Haven is not the only organization involved in trying to help these rabbits. Save A Bunny, Rabbit Rescue Alliance and Team Fur have been doing awesome work to save the bunnies. If I forgot anyone please forgive and correct me, it was unintentional. Many rabbit had been rescued but the situation was getting more desperate. We had been hearing reports of teenagers shooting and chasing the rabbits, capturing them and maiming and torturing them. These almost adults must be really unhappy and confused to feel better after hurting a rabbit. There have been adults with dogs setting the dogs loose to chase the rabbits. This was life or death for the rabbits, we had to get as many out as we could.

Tyler and Sydney remember their own early life in the streets

I drove over two other rabbit people from the Santa Cruz area. Everyone was issued an ID card and an orange vest. After an orientation, that included a Lego model of the park and surrounds, we broke up into teams. Since I had the longest thinnest arms present I was part of the nest diggers. Long arms are needed to reach down the holes and check for the nest. I tried to be useful in other ways since we didn't find any nests. At this point the rabbits left are the survivors, they are fast sneaky ones, this is Darwin's dream and our nightmare. There are various structures under which the rabbits hide, sometimes you can stick a pole under and flush the rabbit out the other side into the XPen that has been cleverly placed, then someone has to quickly take a piece of cardboard and close off the exit. This works sometimes, but more often than not the rabbit underneath will evade the pole. Even food as a lure has only a limited appeal to these remaining rabbits. There were quite a few rabbits in the baseball and soccer fields adjacent to the park. In the open the rabbits have to be herded by the two foots into a U shaped XPen that is then snappily closed behind the bun. Add to all this that it is dark and we are working by flashlight and lantern. One of the structures in the park was large storage container under which many rabbits had made their home. Next week the school wants to remove it and fill in all the rabbit holes, regardless of whether there are rabbits present or not. The night we were there the only rabbit was a big white rabbit and a dead rabbit. Many times the teams returned to try to get the white rabbit out, and never was there any luck. I saw it's nose, just once. One team did get the dead rabbit out. We were collecting all rabbits, dead or alive. Live rabbits were placed in carriers and taken for assessment by a team member who had a set-up in the back of a camper. These rabbits received a dose of Revolution for the fleas and ticks that are prevalent. After assessment they were ferried to a foster site. The deceased went a pet crematorium. There were a few tense moments when large groups of teens came walking by, but once they saw us with our orange vests and rabbit nets they figured we were were nuts and dangerous and left. By 1 a.m. we had caught 11 rabbits and found 4 dead ones, it seemed time to pack up. On our way back from the fields someone spotted the big white rabbit who had jumped out of the Xpen and was running around the park; possibly upset at the removal of the dead rabbit who could have been it's mate. Determined as Ahab after his white whale a team pursued this Lagomorphic great white and in the end caught her; 12 rabbits rescued.

May she and all the Moreland rabbits find caring and living homes.

The Spots want to tell the Moreland rabbits that there will be plenty of hay from now on